When you ask longtime Most Blessed Sacrament parishioner Becky Lucas to describe her pastor’s approach when it comes to tending his flock, she recalls the death of a young Marine who was buried from the Arlington church.

Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a priority in Catholic education. So when administrators at Notre Dame in Wichita Falls searched for an innovative way to celebrate Catholic Schools Week (Jan. 25-31), they came up with an idea they thought would exemplify that spirit of evangelization.

The three-part mission of the Serra Club is simple and closely aligned with the work of its namesake, Blessed Father Junípero Serra. The Catholic lay organization’s goals are to: foster vocations to the priesthood and support priests; encourage vocations to consecrated life; and to help its own members respond to God’s call. Ordained into the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1737, Blessed Fr. Serra was widely regarded for his brilliant mind. He used it to teach philosophy and theology to seminary students in Spain.

During the pinnacle of construction of the new St. Jude Parish in Mansfield, workmen carefully tethered Fr. George Foley to a wooden cross rising more than 85 feet atop the structure’s highest point. The 80-year-old priest, possessing boundless energy and endless ideas, rose to the occasion not so much for a bird’s-eye view from the roof over the church, but with a future project in mind. Fr. Foley was quietly contemplating using the cross to support a radio antenna that could bring the Gospel to 90,000 people in a 25-mile radius of the church.

Bishop Michael Olson presented four awards to Scouters involved in Catholic Scouting at a dinner hosted by the Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting at Good Shepherd Parish Hall in Colleyville Dec. 5.